UN appeals for $68 million to help Syrians in Jordan

Syrian refugee children receive toys and other goodies distributed by an aid organization at at the Zaatari refugee camp close to the northern Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on Aug 19, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP

AMMAN (AFP) - The United Nations appealed on Monday for US$54 million (S$67.6 million) to help meet the growing needs of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan, particularly children who "suffer most."

The UN Children's Fund Unicef said in a statement the funds are "urgently" needed "to meet the emergency health, protection, and water and sanitation needs of the growing numbers of Syrian refugee children and their families arriving in Jordan."

Jordan is hosting around 200,000 Syrian refugees - 17,000 are sheltered at the UN-run Zaatari refugee camp in the north and half of them are children. "We expect to have 70,000 people at Zaatari camp by the end of this year," said the Unicef's Jordan representative Dominique Hyde.

"We must act now because it is children who continue to suffer most. So more funding is urgently required to scale-up our emergency response activities." Unicef said conditions at the seven-square-kilometre Zaatari camp are "harsh, with scorching temperatures, no natural shade, and frequent sandstorms that rip through the camp."